Welcome to Remezcla’s weekly guide to Latin art openings in your city each week. Mingle with art admirers, collectors and casual passersby to check out these new works. And don’t forget to grab a free glass of wine…or three.
1
Discount Saints
Ghetto Mary and Papi Jesús are the stars in Melanie Gonzalez’ new multimedia art show ‘Discount Saints.’ A subversive exhibit of photography, video, and sculpture interweaves religious iconographies, New Yorkers, and symbols of beauty and class in the form of commonplace dollar store objects. Adaptations of saints decked out in dollar store paraphernalia are deified across the wall in large scale portraits, while velitas with the saints’ image are available for purchase on an altar nearby. Other pieces include a video recreation of a pieta scene traditionally illustrated as the Virgin Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus. But instead of using conventional iconography, Gonzalez shows herself costumed in gold hoops and a hairnet holding a bearded guy wearing chains and a mesh tank top. Last but not least is a cross constructed from gold doorknocker earrings and hair clips; tucked away in a corner cove, it’s meant to be considered with reverence and contemplation. Go pay homage. The show is up until January 30th.
Medianoche
1355 Park Avenue (at East 102nd street)
New York, NY 10029
2
Vintage Masters
Portraits of artists like Frida Kahlo and Matisse, and vintage landscapes of Chichen-Itza and Machu Picchu are a few subjects of the classic images on view at Throckmorton Fine Art. The show iconic photographs ranging from 1853, about the time of photography’s genesis, to 1996. Many of Latin America’s most prestigious photographers are included, such as Graciela Iturbide, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and Tina Modotti, as well as many other photography masters. The show will be up until January 9th, 2016.
Throckmorton Galley
145 East 57th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10022
3
La Luz es Fuerte
A photography exhibit focusing on the strength of women in Chiapas – a state in Mexico that has the largest number of indigenous populations in the country and is the birthplace of the EZLN or the Zapatista Army of National Liberation – is on view at the art and community gallery run by the Lower East Side Girls Club. Works from Maya photographers Margarita Perez and Maruch Santiz Gomez are part of the show, as well as work by their students. Photographers Gertrude Duby Blom and Marcey Jacobson (who rarely show their work) are also in the show.
Lower East Side Girls Club
Art + Community Gallery
New York, NY